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Just as a point to consider, who cares about conservative principles? Nothing in the TSRA or NRA ratings should consider conservative principles. Both are single issue organizations who should only reflect his performance on that one issue.

I am not a conservative. I am a libertarian. I support the TSRA and NRA for their stance on one issue that I am very concerned with as a basic liberty. I have not always agreed with either organization but I find the ratings from TSRA to be very helpful in making up my mind on some candidates. In the specific case of Straus, I found his lack of being a conservative on certain issues very beneficial to the concept of liberty. I do not want to go into those issues because they are irrelevant to the point of this forum.

My personal rating of Straus for his gun issues would be A- or B+ because I think he could have done more to get certain bills passed than he did. But he has also worked to kill a lot of bad gun bills so I will not punish him too hard for not supporting those bills. I tend to trust that TSRA knows more about the real political situation and what is possible than I do, and I am positive Straus also knows this. Since he is not a single issue politician, I am sure he made some decisions where gun bills were sacrificed for other positions he held dear also.

All I mean to say with all of this is that you may judge him as bad or good based on your mix of priorities, but the TSRA should only judge him for his position on a single issue.

SewTexas wrote:Anyone who gets so many "I'm a Democrat and I like you" comments as he was getting isn't much of a Republican that's for sure.

I read this in the news today. The Austin Statesman ran a column on what people are saying about this. I told a friend that it was very telling that the comments from Republicans were almost universally looking at what they can pass now (bathroom bill and constitutional carry were the two most common mentioned). At the same time, the comments from the Democrats were almost universally moaning and saying this is a bad thing. The best (as in most polite or least hateful) was saying how it was the last of the "sane" Republicans leaving the legislature.